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Eirene
Eirene was born Adela in 64 BC, part of a Germanic tribe called the Chatti that lived over the east river. In 55 BC, Caesar took Koblenz and the Rhine bridges, and by 52, many young Chatti and Suevi had been taken as slaves to work in Rome. Eirene was twelve. She suffered the indignities and assaults young girls usually did in this era, but was luckily sold to work on a farm instead of in the brothels, which would have significantly shortened her lifespan. A clever but emotionally numbed young girl, she also grew up pretty, with uncommon red-gold hair, and was eventually stolen by treasonous soldiers, who treated her terribly; she was seen by one Titus Pullo, a Roman soldier in Caesar's army who fell for her immediately, saying she made him feel peaceful. Pullo eventually rescued her after she'd been abandoned by her captors (who had more pressing concerns, like "avoiding death") and had been dragged behind their horse for several days before finally collapsing. She was left to work in the household of Pullo's friend's wife's home (at one point she was briefly abducted again, but Pullo managed to recover her), and fell in love with another worker nearby, unaware that Pullo (her master) was also in love with her; when he freed her, she planned to marry the other servant. Pullo fell into a jealous rage and murdered his competition, leaving Eirene both horrified and livid- although she was one of the few gentle people in Rome, she contemplated killing Pullo in return, going so far as to hold a knife to his throat one night. He was willing to let her do it, too, but she didn't, and instead, a while later, haltingly accepted his offer of marriage, in adorably hilarious broken English (or Latin, as it would be to the characters). As a freewoman and a married one, she did quite well, managing to learn to read and write in Latin - something not a lot of women in her position would have managed, though her accent remained very strong - and running a household. After both Caesar's death and that of Niobe, Vorenus's wife - another long, tragic story - the household was turned into a tavern of sorts. Eirene became pregnant, much to Pullo's delight. They acquired a slave woman named Gaia, who had designs on Pullo; Gaia was both physically larger than the tiny Eirene and also much more violent, but Pullo didn't take her threats and disrespect toward Eirene seriously until it was too late. Gaia poisoned Eirene, intending to kill her gestating baby, but perfectly okay with the potent risk it would kill Eirene as well, which it did. That's where Eirene's story ends in Rome. (Pullo found out about Gaia's treason later on, and strangled her to death, by the way. Roman justice.) Eirene woke in the Nexus, still bloody and traumatized, only twenty-two years old at her time of death. She believed she'd been forsaken by her gods at home, being quite religious, and was reassured by Hermes (Mercury is parallel to a chief god among the Chatti), to whom she still pays tribute. She was then taken in by Martel, who had also suffered the trauma of showing up in the Nexus just after a hideous death, and began to run his household for him after ascertaining he had no sexual designs on her and was genuinely devoted to his wife. That was two years ago. Gradually over the course of time, she became close to Martel's right-hand man, Ewar, and the two have begun a tentative relationship, in which Ewar, who is without a doubt one of the sanest and kindest men she's ever met, is extremely patient with her. It's the first time in her life she's been in an environment where emotional fallout is even tolerated, and she has a lot to sort through, though she still does her job very well, thank you. Category:Characters Category:Resurrected